Please help! 10.5 months. Hardly eats at all.

[swmw]

Hello.
I'm a newbie but have spent MANY hours looking through this site to find a solution to our many problems! I'd really appreciate some advice for my lo. Here is some background info;

She is 10.5 months. Been on EASY since day one. She was bf and never woke for milk during the day so I would always wake her every 3 hours. As a consequence she never showed any hunger signs - that's something that I worry about still. We started weaning at 5.5 months with home made purees and it went really well. She would eat anything I gave her. Introduced finger foods after 6 months but she has never showed much interest in finger food - except rice cakes! Anyway all was going well till we started teething. When she is teething she goes totally off her food. The only thing I could get her to eat was a certain flavour of shop bought purée that is quite sweet and very smooth. We seem to have had a constant teething situation and during this time she became very fussy. Would hardly eat anything at all so I would offer her favourite things because she was teething. Well now that is all she will eat!
She will only eat things with butternut squash or cream cheese in. She will not eat lumps. If you give her something with lumps in she spits it out and then won't eat anymore at all. The only finger food she will eat is rice cakes, toast, cherios and blueberries. She is sooooo stubborn. If she doesn't like what I offer her she turns to the side and starts to chew on the side of her high chair so I can't even try and put anything in her mouth. I'm getting so frustrated and I know I shouldn't but it's really upsetting me now. Sometimes she won't even open her mouth to even taste her dinner she just refuses the spoon outright. I've tried finger foods - I always offer them but she just eats what she likes (rice cajks etc) and throws the rest on the floor. I've tried giving her the spoon but the just waves it around and then throws it on the floor. She just doesn't seem interested in food at all. For a short while we could feed her if we distracted her with a toy but that doesn't work now. (She so fussy recently that I've had to stop breast feeding her. She would just scream when I put my boob infront of her - I know why it is. It's because when she latched on the milk didn't come straight away even thou my let down is very quick. Anyway I digress!)

Her grandparents look after her whilst I'm at work and the only way they can get her to eat is to mix the food with flavoured yoghurt :-( I know this isn't helping the situation. 

This is our routine: 
6-7am Wake & bottle anything from 4-7 oz
8.00 breakie - lucky if she will have 10 spoons of cereal - weetabix/readybrek 
9.30 nap -woken after 1 hour
11.30 lunch 
1.45 bottle (3-7 oz) 
2.00 nap for 1.5 hours 
4.30 dinner 
6.30 bottle & bed 

We used to give the midday bottle after her nap at about 3.30 but I wondered if that was why she wasn't eating any dinner because she was full in milk so we brought it earlier. She still won't ear her dinner! As u can see she doesn't even have any snacks during the day. 

If your still reading this - thank you! I'm sorry it's such a long post!
I'm totally at a loss as how to proceed. She won't eat a variety of finger foods and won't eat from a spoon. 
Has anyone any advice how to get my lo interested in food?        

[~inbalance~]

First off, (((hugs))).  I know it's so frustrating and worrying when our LOs aren't interested in eating.  Have you read here?:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=182686.0

Ok, these types of situations are often tricky.  How many teeth has she got now, and is she still teething?  Has there been any illness recently to turn her off food?

At the end of the day, even with the pickiest of eaters, the best thing you can do is keep offering healthy food.  At this age I would stop trying to feed her and focus solely on self-feeding.  I know this seems impossible since she is not interested in finger foods either, but it's a better approach than trying to spoon feed her when she doesn't want it, which in turn can create more food aversions.

Now we all want our LOs to eat SOMETHING, and the idea of them eating very little is scary.  But we can't force it.  So I would move forward with the finger foods.  Offer her a variety, and let her decide what to do with it.  Even if all she does is poke at it or even drop it off her tray, that's ok.  Letting her do what SHE wants to do with it is the first step forward.  Also, when you give her food, do you eat with her?  Try to share mealtime with her and make it fun, but don't necessarily hover, if that makes sense.  You want her to feel like you're sitting and enjoying the time with her, not watching her eat, kwim?

Sorry there's no easy way to get her to eat, but hope I've given you a few ideas to work with. 

[swmw]

Martina, thanks for replying! 
We have only 4 teeth at the moment but I'm sure the 5th is on it's way! There has been no major illness but we've pretty much had a constant cold since December.

With the finger food I do offer a variety but what do I do if she eats nothing? Surly she's got to eat something?

I was out with another mummy friend yesturday and needed for feed my lo so I added some cream cheese to her cod dinner because I didn't want a scene. She watched me add the cheese then I dipped my finger in it and she tasted it from my finger - and then she would let me spoon feed her the whole bowl! The other mum said I should just add cheese to everything if that's what she likes because she will still get a varied diet. What do u think?
 
This morning breakfast went well because I put a cheerio on top of every spoon of porridge so she could see it and she ate it all. I know she can feed herself cheerios - which she does do - but I like the idea of porridge because of the added calcium and iron. 

Should I just keep feeding her the few things that she likes? I'm so nervous that she will be such a fussy eater forever! 

[~inbalance~]

With the finger food I do offer a variety but what do I do if she eats nothing? Surly she's got to eat something?

This is the hard part, but if she doesn't eat it there's not much else you can do.  But eating is only part of the experience, and even if she is playing it she is still learning about food.

There is nothing wrong with offering her something you know she will eat at every meal.  A good tactic is to offer her something you know she will eat, and something new each time.  Chances are eventually she will get sick of eating the stuff she likes, and will start eating the stuff she doesn't like.  Babies are funny that way.    You might want to check the nutritional content of cream cheese though for things like salt, sugar etc. since you don't want to be giving her too much of that stuff all the time. 

This morning breakfast went well because I put a cheerio on top of every spoon of porridge so she could see it and she ate it all. I know she can feed herself cheerios - which she does do - but I like the idea of porridge because of the added calcium and iron.

I think this is ok as long as she is eating by choice and you're not forcing her, and it doesn't sound like you are. 

It's very important to keep mealtimes relaxed and fun.  It's easy to get caught up in how much she is eating at individual meals, but if you look at the big picture what you are trying to do is build good foundations for healthy eating habits, and sometimes that means less gets eaten at certain meals but she is learning more about what it means to eat well.  Not sure if I'm making sense. 

[swmw]

Thank you very much for your advice. It's greatly appreciated! I shall keep going!

[~inbalance~]

Good luck!  Keep us posted!